Rick Derksen accepts his Gold Quill award from CCNA president Coleen Campbell after being introduced by his daughter, not pictured, on Friday. Photo by Aaron Lynett/Toronto Star

At the President’s Lunch at Ink & Beyond, Rick Derksen, publisher of The Carillon in southeastern Manitoba and owner of Derksen Printers, was honoured with the Gold Quill.

The prestigious award is given to a person who has served 50 or more years in the community newspaper industry.

Two others were recognized Friday evening.

Metroland Media Group president Murray Skinner received Honorary Life Membership in the CCNA for his contribution of community journalism in Canada.

Skinner was named president of Metroland in 2000, after more than 30 years with the company.

Under his leadership, Metroland grew into a substantial part of Torstar. Metroland is made up of more than 100 community newspapers and several large dailies in Ontario. Skinner is expected to retire from his post on July 1.

David Black, president and owner of Black Press, was given the Margaret Hennigar Award for exemplary leadership for 2008. He was also given Honorary Life Membership by the CCNA.

Black’s career began in 1975 when he bought British Columbia’s Williams Lake Tribune from his father.

From that one newspaper, he built a company with more than 175 publications in B.C., Alberta, Washington state, Ohio and Hawaii.

Black was honoured for his success in the newspaper industry and work with organizations including the Rotary Club, Commonwealth Games and B.C. Progress Board.

“If it burns or bleeds — just like your front page — it gets traffic,” said Joanne Burghardt, editor-in-chief of Metroland Durham Region. Burghardt sat on a panel with Ian Caldwell, manager of online editorial content with Metroland Durham Region, and Drew Hasselback, associate editor of financialpost.com

The seminar, Web Video Journalism: Guerrilla Style, was one of the last at Ink & Beyond, the Canadian Newspaper Association and Canadian Community Newspapers Association conference taking place at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto.

Panel members agreed video is an instrumental part of news coverage, and shared their approaches to shifting focus to capturing the news through a lens.

From left to right, Drew Hasselback, Associate Editor of financialpost.com, along with manager of online editorial content for Metroland Durham Region Ian Caldwell,  and Joanne Burghardt, Editor-in-Chief for Metroland Durham Region talk about their approaches to video production and the vital part it is beginning to play in a print reporter’s job. Aaron Lynett/Toronto Star

Niche for community news

Burghardt said community papers are in a rare position to take advantage of the wide levels of interest in all styles of media coverage.

A few years ago Burghardt walked into her publisher’s office with a detailed proposal for a business section she felt would give their newspaper a competitive edge.

The idea was turned down.

Later she returned and proposed $20,000 be invested in technology. She did not have a set plan or experience, but wanted to use the cash to produce a daily newscast.

She got the green light.  

Staff were trained at Sheridan College and, with steady practice, the bumps started to get smoothed out.

“It was actually not very expensive to do it.”

They’ve since brought in multimedia staff and traffic on the site has been steadily increasing, she said. But during the process the paper lost reporters who were not interested in holding cameras.  

Sorting out video advertising is one challenge they are facing right now, she said. “Right now our sole purpose is to build an audience and build traffic.”

Rough-and-ready video sufficient for disasters

“Video has a unique way of telling a story,” Ian Caldwell said. Prime examples are videos of airplanes hitting the World Trade Centre on Sept. 11, 2001 and of tsunamis devastating sections of Thailand and Sri Lanka on Boxing Day 2005. 

The standard for the quality of video is high but when disaster strikes, things change, he said.

Then, it’s more about capturing the moment, and a “cinéma-vérité” feel can be more appropriate, he said.

Perceptions about equipment are also changing, and hand-held cameras are increasingly accepted as tools of the trade, he said.

“The question now is, what is a good video story?”   

If community news outlets establish themselves as a source of breaking news they are in the position to scoop national television networks tied to broadcast schedules.

News Durham Region received several thousand hits during recent coverage of a major fire in Bowmanville.

The success of the story was the result of two years of slow, steady progress. That dedication has established www.newsdurhamregion.com as a source for breaking news, Burghardt said. When news breaks, “Our traffic is spiking before we get there.”

Making financial videos that pay

Adding visual value to occasionally dry financial content has its own challenges.  

“The most important thing for us was not video for video’s sake,” but adding quality content to the print offering, said Drew Hasselback.  

One problem for a leading financial paper is that investors are tuned in 24/7; when news breaks they expect to have access to content from a trusted source.  

Multimedia lends itself well to financial coverage, because the inherent level of transparency allows readers direct transcripts of conversations or video blogs of CEOs, he said.

The Financial Post has found success with several styles of video content, including a wildly popular video interview with financial giant Warren Buffett and a humourous series, Marred by Taxes, with real estate reporter Garry Marr.

The advertising side is a challenge, particularly based on the diversity of content and fluctuating volumes of traffic, he said. 

When FP moved into multimedia they created four primary objectives.

The first was presenting “how-to” content, said Hasselback.

They brought trusted investment advisors on to give advice online.

“Not the most compelling TV in the world … but there is a lot of people out there who want to watch that stuff because they want to learn about it,” he said “It’s news you can use.”

The second was delivering broadcast news. By luck, the Financial Post had just hired an economics reporter with a television background who stepped in to do a noon broadcast.

Commentary was third, and “I think that is the thing we do best,” he said.

The last was interviews, which have a lot of appeal for people who look to the Financial Post for news, said Hasselback.  “When you show that interview and the viewer can actually see the subject speak in their own words, that fear the journalist is getting in the way of the story is gone.” 

Bob McInnis insists slumping ad sales are not an inevitability. Photo by Aaron Lynett/Toronto Star

 McInnis, whose Response Oriented Selling program has been implemented by several dailies in the US and Canada, says he’s always floored when newspapers tell him: “Gone are the days when we should see ad revenue increases.”

 Outlining some of the steps involved with his program, McInnis showed a crowd of publishers and advertising reps how they could work with clients to bring their ad money back to the paper.

 McInnis says the reason so many potential advertisers are no longer putting their money into newspaper is because they have been allowed to run ineffective ads in the past.

 ”The biggest problem that you’re facing out there is that customers want ads to be done their way. Not the way they need to be,” said McInnis.

 “Prospective advertisers have their own theories about content, size and frequency” but in many cases, those theories are flawed, he said.

 The resulting failure of many ads to produce a return has left many advertisers to believe that newspaper ads cost more money than they’re worth.

 “What we’re talking about is fixing the damage that’s in (advertisers) brains so that they will have that epiphany,” said McInnis, in explaining how advertising reps need to show disenfranchised clients that the reason their ads may have failed in the past was thanks to poorly designed ads, and not the paper.

 A good ad is as important as a good paper, said McInnis.

 McInnis also recommended newspapers learn the nature of their clients’ businesses in order to show them that the paper is interested in more than just taking the clients money but in helping the client produce the best ad and get the best return.

But is it really fair to hate them, or blame them for the troubles the paid newspapers are facing?  

That’s the wrong approach, said Piet Bakker, professor at the University of Amsterdam, who has studied the effect of introducing free papers into the market.

Readers aren’t substituting free papers for paid, says Piet Bakker. Instead, free dailies are attracting new readers — including the coveted younger generation. Photo by Aaron Lynett

“If you’re looking at them as the enemy, then you are probably barking up the wrong tree,” Bakker said at Ink & Beyond, a conference of the Canadian Newspaper Association and Canadian Community Newspapers Association. “I don’t believe in it. I think they are stealing some readers and some advertising as well, but we have always had competition and new challenges.” 

“Making them an enemy is not a very fruitful approach to your own future,” he said, especially since free dailies appear to be here to stay.

Across the world, the number of free dailies is increasing and their readership is increasing. Many markets in Asia, Europe and North America have multiple free dailies. There are eight in Korea, five in Switzerland.

FREE DAILIES: 1995-2008

Free dailies have steadily moved into new countries, bringing an exponential increase in titles and circulation. Chart courtesy Piet Bakker.

“In almost every market … the trend that paid newspapers are losing ground and free newspapers are gaining,” said Bakker.

But that doesn’t mean readers are substituting free papers for paid. Instead, free papers are simply attracting new readers — including the coveted generation of younger readers.

TORONTO NEWSPAPER READERSHIP AGE BREAKDOWN:

Image courtesy Piet Bakker

So what can paid papers do in a market that is increasingly saturated?

“The strategy is to do different things at the same time. Have online strategies, do something with your brand, sell books or DVDs, organize seminars, travels,” he said.

“You can do things with your brand, but at this point late in the game, you don’t have to do a free newspaper.”

IMPACT OF FREE DAILIES IN CANADA:

Image courtesy Piet Bakker

But having only a newspaper is a very “problematic,” he said. If you are a good paper, with a good name, you can probably last 15 to 20 years at the most, he said. “And who knows what’s going to happen in 20 years.” 

Piet Bakker writes a blog about free dailies

That crinkling and gasping you hear could be the sound of print classified ads folding into their graves. It’s doubtful any of them will have a VU – that’s classified listing talk for a view of the lake. But despite the gloom, there is hope for classified ads in the future, according to one industry expert.

 “Video engages your audience, attracts your audience and retains it,” said Peter Zollman, founding principle of AIM Group and Classified Intelligence LLC, which advises several top media companies in Canada, including Torstar Corp., The Toronto Star, Metroland Media Group Inc., Glacier Ventures and many more across Canada the U.S. and around the world. 

 Zollman led a breakout session at the INK & Beyond Conference entitled New Revenue from Video and Online Directories. The annual conference is put on by the Canadian Newspaper Association and the Canadian Community Newspapers Association and took place over three days at the Westin Harbour Castle. Reporter Emily Mathieu caught up with Zollman after his presentation to hear his predictions on the future of classified ads:

ARE CLASSIFIED ADS DOOMED?
The death of the classified ad is radically overstated but newspapers, particularity in the States, are learning they just can’t count on it being an easy revenue stream anymore. The reality is classified advertising works better online…period. So the short liners that had abbreviations and were by nature very tightly crafted in the newspaper don’t work anymore. People want pictures, they want audio, they want video, they want tours. They want lots of information and feedback and that is something you can’t do with print.

SO ARE PRINT CLASSIFIED ADS ON THE FASTRACK TO EXTINCTION?
I don’t think print classified ads are going to be extinct. I think print classified listing ads will be extinct. But there will still be a lot of branding ads. So why work at this company, or come to our dealership because we’ve taken the sleaze out of the showroom, or we’ve got a great new condo development. Not a listing for a “3BDR 2BA condo with Lake VU in DNTN Toronto with FRPL,” which means fireplace. Those listing ads will pretty much go away from print.   

WHY HAVE U.S. PAPERS BEEN FARING SO POORLY IN THIS AREA, COMPARED TO CANADIAN PAPERS?
In Canada, the economy is still strong. Canada has not had the real estate collapse, except to a minor, minor degree in Ontario that we have had in so many markets in the states. The automotive market here is holding up a little better because of the exchange rate issues, and recruitment has migrated very heavily in the states but in Canada, it’s still holding up in print. The strongest jobsite In Canada far has to be Workopolis which is owned by Torstar (Corp.) and Gesca (Ltd), so its owned by two newspaper companies. 

HOW CAN CANADIAN PAPERS AVOID WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE US?
Well, we work with a lot of Canadian media companies. We would advise them they have to stop thinking about protecting print and they have to think about starting to serve their audiences with things like pictures, video, with more detailed information, building community around classifieds with feedback and forums and content and blogs and user input. All of those things really help preserve classifieds. On the other hand, they are facing a huge threat from YPG Trader and they are facing a huge threat from Kijiji, which is Ebay’s free classified site and it has grown like crazy in Canada.

Photo by Aaron Lynett/Toronto Star

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR ADVERTISING ON HAND-HELD OR MOBILE DEVICES?
Advertising on mobile or handheld devices is going to grow like crazy. I think in a few years, a lot of the mobile devices we get now will be free to the user as long as you are willing to accept advertising. Right now, if I get an ad on my cellphone, I pay for it, so nobody is going to send it to me and I am not going to accept it. But if someone said to me we will cut your phone bill in half if we can send you 20 ads a month, I might say that is a trade I am willing to take.

DURING YOUR PRESENTATION, YOU SHOWED AN AMATUER VIDEO OF A COUPLE WHO HAD LOST EVERYTIHNG IN A FIRE. DO YOU SUGGEST TAGGING ADS ON TO THAT KIND OF CONTENT?
Sure, you can run a video ad before, or you can run video after. People will actually watch video ads afterwards. Or you can surround it with banners and buttons and so forth.

DO YOU THINK USERS ARE TURNED OFF BY ADS BECAUSE WE ARE ACCUSTOMED TO AD-FREE CONTENT ON SITES LIKE YOUTUBE?
Absolutely, people don’t like the commercials. On the other hand, people only dislike the commercials they don’t want to see. When you want to see something then you want to see the commercials. When you are buying a car, you want to see commercials about a car. People understand, they may not love commercials but they understand that this has to be paid for somehow. So they are willing to tolerate commercials. The other thing is, when the commercials are targeting correctly, I really want to see it. When I was looking for a cruise, I started to get a lot of cruise ads served on my computer because of behavioural targeting…and one of the ads saved me $900. I really loved that one.

WHEN TRYING TO SEND A MESSAGE, DOES THE QUALITY OF VIDEO MATTER?
Quality of video is a silly issue. You don’t want to represent a brand badly, but nobody watched the video from Virginia Tech and said I am not watching that because the quality was bad. It was remarkably compelling. The quality of video is dependent on how compelling the video is. You don’t want to make yourself look foolish but neither do you have to spend hundreds of thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars when a low quality video will serve the same purpose. I don’t think people should be setting out to make bad video. I don’t think you need to be a television videographer anymore to do a very capable job.

VIEWERS ARE INCREASINGLY SOPHISTICACED. DO YOU THINK THEY’LL BE TURNED OFF BY SOMETHING ATTACHED TO A MAJOR NEWSPAPER OR TELEVISION NETWORK THEY COULD MAKE AT HOME?
No I don’t.

WHY NOT?
Because I think people are understanding of the nature of costs. I think if I was watching a poorly shot, poorly edited video for Rogers it would be an embarrassment for Rogers. But if I was watching an inexpensively shot one that was done well, [that's different.] I was watching an inexpensive video clip of a fire in rural Nova Scotia. I am thrilled to watch it because it tells me the story I want to see and the fact that the quality of the video is not high is perhaps slightly relevant but not nearly as much as I get to see what I need to see.

SO IT’S BETTER TO HAVE AMATEUR VIDEO INSTEAD OF NOTHING AT ALL?
I think it’s a great way to engage your audience and give them an outlet. If I’m the local paper in Yarmouth, Nova Scota, I’d much rather have any user’s videos on my site, rather than YouTube. I think people now expect movies and moving pictures and the only way for newspapers to participate is to get engaged and get involved. It doesn’t have to cost millions of dollars or hundreds of thousand of dollars. You don’t want to embarrass yourself but you are better off getting involved, getting engaged and getting better rather than staying out of the picture. I think people have to understand that the advertising world is changing, that the audience is changing and the ways people engage and interact with their media are changing. And you have to participate and learn and grow as this evolution, revolution is underway for all of us. It’s kind of cool.  

According to Dennis DesRosiers, the Big Three North American automakers are preparing to reinvest in their products, meaning consumers can expect many new Ford, GM and Chrysler models to hit the roads in the coming years. 

Dennis DesRosiers, Canada’s leading automotive industry analyst, says the next decade will be the most exciting in the auto industry since the 1960s, which bodes well for newspaper ad revenues. Photo by Priscilla Schneidersmann 

“The launch of every new model comes with a media blitz,” said DesRosiers, explaining how newspapers stand to profit from this trend given most media outlets rely on dealers and manufacturers for much of their ad revenue.

Couple these findings with the fact most Canadian car consumers say their choice in car is influenced by reviews and ads in daily newspapers, and you have an optimistic outlook for automotive ad revenues. 

“At a time when advertisers are focusing on new media, we really do believe it’s important for them to keep newspapers in mind,” said Aurelio Diluciano of Millward Brown, a large market research company.

When it comes to advertisements for the automotive industry, “newspapers do enjoy the second-highest level of recall (among readers or viewers) of all the medias that we track,” said Diluciano.

“When someone is close to purchasing a vehicle, newspapers become the most important.”

With this in mind, DesRosiers urged newspaper ad departments to keep abreast of what’s happening in the auto industry to better plan marketing strategies.

But what exactly is going on in the Canadian automotive industry?

Last year, some 1.65 million Canadians purchased a new car while 2.6 million others purchased a used vehicle.

More than half of all purchases were small, entry-level vehicles, with the sharpest sales increases occurring in the same months as the highest gas prices.

“Consumers must be really bummed when the gas price goes up. They must go home and say: ‘Honey, we gotta get one of those small entry-level cars,’” joked DesRosiers.

Roughly 12 per cent of Canadians purchased large, luxury or sports cars — a small but growing market that owes its success to the long-term strength of the Canadian economy.

Important to note is the sharp decline, or “collapse” as DesRosiers describes it, of the mid-sized sedan market, from 40 per cent in 1997 to 24 per cent in 2007.

DesRosiers also said that while the Big Three American manufacturers have been surpassed by import nameplates as the preferred brands of Canadian consumers, this trend might soon be reversed.

The rejuvenated Chrysler marque saw a 12 per cent increase in Canadian sales in 2007 while the embattled Ford Motor Company saw a 4.9 per cent increase the same year.

Compare that with a 4.5 per cent increase among foreign imports, and it would appear the troubles of these automakers may soon appear as but a blip in the rear-view mirror.

Baby boomers – the generation most likely to still read print news – have big bucks to spend, and many feel neglected by current ads, according to an Ipsos Reid survey released today by the Canadian Newspaper Association.

“This information will help newspapers formulate their offerings to this key demographic”, said John Wright, senior vice-president for public affairs at Ipsos Reid. ”They’re the well-heeled people in this country – the boomers with the big, fat wallets.”

John Wright of Ipsos Reid says catering coverage to baby boomers can help newspapers draw advertising dollars. Photo by Aaron Lynett 

In a survey of 1,980 Canadian adults aged between 44 and 62, 80 per cent said they still had “big buying power.” And many indicated they fully intended to exercise that power with large purchases.

The survey, considered accurate within 2.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20, also shows newspapers are the medium of choice for boomers, with 65 per cent indicating that they don’t see a time when their paper will be replaced by something else.

Catering to boomers can help newspapers draw advertising dollars, Wright said, noting that 80 per cent of boomers pay attention to newspaper ads, inserts and flyers, compared with 63 per cent of young adults. 

When asked what they would like to see more of in their daily paper, most boomers (64 per cent) said local news was a priority, with provincial news a distant second at 31 per cent. Personal finance, health, international and national news, and travel/leisure were also among boomers’ preferred content.

With files from Brett Popplewell

Balsillie came to the podium with speech in hand – or at least he had paper – then for the next 45 minutes refused to refer to it. He very much comes across as a humble guy still more surprised than anyone else that his little gadget, the Blackberry, has become an iconic and necessary tool for business around the world. 

Much of his speech was spent talking about his current passion of raising money for those less fortunate. He has donated $100 million of his own fortune and twisted the arms of his corporate buddies to do the same. He is proudly Canadian – a corporate trait that is becoming harder to find in an era of mega multi-national corporations.  And yes, he really does love his hockey. Of his failed attempt to buy an NHL franchise, Balsillie described himself as the dog that runs to the curb to catch a school bus, misses and then saunters back to the front step. Balsillie is confident that one of the these days he is going to catch the bus.

It’s an odd analogy for a modern corporate titan to use. Hard to imagine Henry Ford or Sam Walton describing themselves as a dog chasing a bus. But that is the charm of Jim Balsillie. He is brilliant. He is driven. He is wildly successful. And he is also humble. As he said: “If you travel the world and you can’t be thankful, you should get some thankful lessons.”

After a long day of sessions, from left, Nicole Marinelli, Circulation Sales Coordinator at The Record; Don McCurdy, Journalism Professor at Conestoga College; Melinda Marks, Managing Editor of The Record; John Roe of The Record; and Jan Bockmaster of The Guelph Mercury at the ‘Martinis with Marketwire’ social event. Photo By Priscilla Schneidersmann/Toronto Star

Kirk LaPointe of the Vancouver Sun; Julia Kamula, Executive Vice President, Central Region of Sun Media Corporation; and Dana Robbins, Publisher of Grand River Media/The Record enjoy martinis at the ‘Martinis with Marketwire’ social event at the conclusion of the second day of the Ink And Beyond 2008 Newspaper Conference, taking place May 7-9 at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel in Toronto . Photo by Aaron Lynett/Toronto Star

From left to right, Patricia Ward, Managing Editor of the Weyburn (SK) Review; Khymn Glover, Managing Editor of News-Net in Oakville; and Kristian Foster, Print/Online Media Relations Manager at News Canada, at the ‘Martinis with Marketwire’ social event at the conclusion of the second day of the Ink And Beyond 2008 Newspaper Conference, taking place May 7-9 at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel in Toronto. Photo by Aaron Lynett/Toronto Star

From left to right, Danette McGibney, Kelly Montague, and Susan Azzopar of the Hamilton Spectator enjoy some cocktails at the ‘Martinis with Marketwire’ social event at the conclusion of the second day of the Ink And Beyond 2008 Newspaper Conference, taking place May 7-9 at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel in Toronto. Photo By Priscilla Schneidersmann/Toronto Star

From left, Lynn Devereaux, Managing Editor for the CFB Halifax Maritime Forces Atlantic Trident; Bruce MacCormakc, VP Business Development at The Halifax Chronicle Herald; Tom MacLean, ACNA Chairman; Ken Sims, Publisher/GM of The Casket in Antigonish, Novs Scotia; and Leith Orr, Group Publisher of The Advocate in Pictou, Nova Scotia relax at the ‘Martinis with Marketwire’ social event at the conclusion of the second day of the Ink And Beyond 2008 Newspaper Conference, taking place May 7-9 at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel in Toronto. Photo By Priscilla Schneidersmann/Toronto Star.

Rather, the industry should aim to become a resource that gives consumers what they really want — answers to their questions, according to Steve Buttry, a director with the American Press Institute.

“We are no longer newspaper companies,” said Buttry, as he unveiled Newspaper Next 2.0, the next generation of research focused on what may help increase and diversify revenue streams for newspapers. “We want to start thinking of ourselves as that essential. That we are so useful that a consumer would not think of coming to this community and not reaching out to us.”

Wishful thinking? Not according to Buttry, who will helm the Cedar Springs Gazette in Iowa, as editor-in-chief.
 
“We want to challenge the industry to do is take a broader vision of the whole market,” he said during one of the afternoon sessions of Ink & Beyond, a conference of the Canadian Newspaper Association and Canadian Community Newspapers Association held in Toronto.

“Everyone who doesn’t read your paper or every business who doesn’t advertise your paper know that you are there. They choose not to read your paper and they choose not to advertise in your paper,” said Buttry.

“Growth by persuading them that they are wrong is a difficult route to take,” he said.

Instead, he said it is imperative to look at the market as whole, find out what readers’ and business’ needs are, find out what is important to them. One way is through the use of databases — on government salaries or restaurant ratings, for example — that provide answers about the community to those who need it.

On the advertising side, he offered some tips. Newspapers were slow to capitalize on the Web, but now have invested much money and effort into the creation of verticals — websites — primarily focusing on real estate and the auto industry.

“We need to protect our verticals, as this is where the majority of revenue for Canadian media websites is coming from,” he said. “But it has taken us away from the focus from other avenues.”

He also said newspapers could “expect to see a decrease in revenues from banners and listings” on websites, the source of most of newspaper revenue. Instead, there would be more revenue potential in e-mail advertising, paid search and online video.

He also suggested that companies hire online-only sales people, and focus primarily on generating revenue for the Web by working to make newspapers a more lucrative advertising venue for businesses. 

“Right now, we are just an expense line. But if we’re selling tickets, or registration for courses. If we are getting people to take out their credit cards when they come to our sites … we are their revenue line as well. When times get tough, what will they do, look for ways to increase revenue.”

“We want to be an expense line, but we also want to be a revenue line.”

For more information on Newspaper Next 2.0 or the American Press Institute, visit: www.newspapernext.org